Back to campus after the Covid-19 pandemic: A qualitative study from the students perspective

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the reopening of society after the Covid-19 pandemic looking especially for long-lasting effects of the lockdowns on teaching in higher education. We conducted a survey among Bachelor's students within the field of Information Technology (IT). This paper presents the results of thematic analysis on the qualitative data of this survey. The importance of student activity and interaction within social constructivism is used as a foundation for our analysis and discussion of the post-pandemic situation. We found that students have come to expect both streaming and recording of lectures for flexibility and usefulness as learning resources. On the other hand, students are very clear that they learn better during physical lectures and that digital teaching is seen as inferior in many ways. It seems that going forward, as lecturers, we should find ways of combining online and traditional teaching.